Oklahoma City Thunder, Carmelo Anthony will 'part ways' in 2018, per report

The Carmelo Anthony era is coming to an end in Oklahoma City. The Thunder are exploring options to either trade or release the 10-time All-Star in order to shave more than $100 million from the club’s bloated salary cap and luxury tax, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

A trade or release via the league’s stretch provision would end Anthony’s Oklahoma tenure at just a single season. The Thunder made a big splash by shipping Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a 2018 second-round pick to the Knicks to acquire the gifted scorer last September. While the team hoped he, Russell Westbrook, and Paul George would be a potent enough trio to lead the team back to NBA title contention, the three ball-dominant players struggled to find a comfortable stasis between them.

The result was, statistically, the worst season of Anthony’s NBA life. He posted career lows in field goal percentage (40.4%) and points per game (16.2) as Oklahoma City only improved its record by a single game in 2017-18. Much like the year before, the Thunder were ousted in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

What does this mean for the Thunder?

Oklahoma City had few options to improve its roster thanks to the league’s most bloated cap sheet. The Thunder were the first team in league history to carry more than $300 million in salaries and luxury tax penalties, but had little to show for it. With Paul George locked in for another four years on the plains, Anthony was an expensive and redundant luxury.

While the team loses its third-best scorer, it gains tremendous financial relief — an important facet for the franchise that once traded away 2018 NBA MVP James Harden rather than hand him a nine-figure contract. Trading or stretching Anthony will save the team $91 million in luxury tax penalties. That won’t exactly get the team out of cap hell, but it does make things much easier to manage going forward.

Which is good, because Oklahoma City will be weighted down with plenty of other long-term contracts over the next few years. The club isn’t slated to have any realistic, non-exception cap space until 2021. Barring extremely unforeseen circumstances, any improvements to the roster will have to come through the draft or via trade — and getting other teams to take on those big contracts would likely eat up the team’s draft capital.

Swapping out ‘Melo doesn’t fix the team’s problems, but it does create more flexibility going forward. That’s a start — but the Thunder will have to be proactive to level up from “playoff also-ran” to “legit contender” while Westbrook and George are in their primes.

What does this mean for Carmelo Anthony?

Anthony will enter 2018-19 with a chip on his shoulder and the opportunity to embrace ‘Hoodie Melo’ while proving he’s not yet washed at age 34. The former star was an albatross in his final series with OKC, averaging just 11.8 points per game while shooting 37.5% from the field in a six-game first-round playoff loss to the Utah Jazz. In 15 NBA seasons, he’s only advanced beyond the first round of the postseason twice.

The good news is he’ll be free to pursue a role with a team that can change that fortune. The Thunder are going to have a hell of a time finding a trade partner for Anthony, which means a buyout or release are his most likely options in 2018. That means Oklahoma City is going to be paying him something near his $27.9m salary to play elsewhere — and that means he can settle for a veteran’s minimum contract with a contender if he so pleases.

There are several teams that could use a scorer like Anthony. He could join the Rockets’ quest to unseat the Warriors while replacing Trevor Ariza’s contributions on the wing. He could play veteran mentor to Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum in Portland. He could team up with a re-signed Dwyane Wade in Miami. Or he could go to Los Angeles and make everyone just lose their damn minds with LeBron James.

His call.

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